Students in Sunset Elementary's kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes received 13 iPads this week through a partnership with Friends of Moffat County Education. The local group plans to provide 30 iPads to each of the four elementary schools in the Moffat County School District in an effort to modernize student learning.

Sunset Elementary receives 1st shipment of classroom iPads

Quotable...

“This is just the beginning, and soon, twice as many students will be impacted by having iPads in the classroom. (IPads provide) a way to keep kids engaged and enhance their learning experience by taking traditional classes and extending them through (iPad) applications and the Internet.”

— Cheryl Arnett, second-grade teacher at Sunset Elementary, about the arrival of 13 classroom iPads. The iPads were provided through a partnership with Friends of Moffat County Education.

Craig  A new era of learning for Moffat County School District students kicked off Tuesday with the arrival of the first classroom iPads at Sunset Elementary School.

Cheryl Arnett, a second-grade teacher at Sunset, said the 13 iPads arrived this week as part of a pilot program funded through a partnership with Friends of Moffat County Education to modernize learning for students in kindergarten through second grade.

The iPads will be shared by 145 students in those grades.

“It’s important to show how many kids this is impacting,” Arnett said. “The world has changed. Kids are surrounded by technology, and it’s the way they learn outside of the classroom.”

Although Sunset received 13 iPads this week, Chris Jones, president of Friends of Moffat County Education, said the goal is to provide 30 iPads to each of the four elementary schools in the Moffat County School District. That would work out to five iPads each for kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes in the county.

“Sunset brought the idea to us,” Jones said. “We thought it was a great idea and decided to try to implement a districtwide initiative.”

The 13 iPads Sunset received this week cost $5,000. Jones estimates it will cost $50,000 to $55,000 to meet its 30 iPads per school goal.

Friends of Moffat County Education is in the process of filing grant applications and has received private and business donations for the iPads it already has purchased. The local education group also is working on business partnerships to stage a fundraiser to help reach its goal.

“This is just the beginning, and soon, twice as many students will be impacted by having iPads in the classroom,” Arnett said. IPads provide “a way to keep kids engaged and enhance their learning experience by taking traditional classes and extending them through (iPad) applications and the Internet.”

Friends of Moffat County Education started in March 2012 and has logged numerous accomplishments in its first year, including three family fun runs, launching Passport to Reading for fourth- and fifth-graders, earning a grant to bring the Earth Dome to Craig and implementing the 13x3 Book Drive, which has netted 13,000 donated books in each of the past two years.

The local organization has more things to come beginning next school year, including plans in October to bring the Space Dome to Moffat County schools, but Jones said meeting its iPad goal is a top priority.

“We’re very anxious to get the entire district funded with these iPads,” Jones said. “The presentations (about student learning) we’re seeing are incredible.”